The chair of Sofia's Municipal Election Commission has stepped down at the request of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, his GERB party has announced.

 

Problems caused by flawed organization of ballot processing, which resulted in the lockup of hundreds of people in the Arena Armeec sports hall where ballots were being counted, were what prompted the PM to demand Dilyana Ivanov's resignation.

 

Earlier on Monday, the government asked the Central Election Commission, Bulgaria's high election body, to stand down, but its members refused.

 

At the Arena Armeec sports hall in Sofia, about a dozen people were taken to hospital between Sunday evening and Tuesday, with several of them having fainted as they didn't stand the pressure of being locked up amid unprecedented delays in the delivery of ballots and huge queues of people from district election commissions waiting to submit their protocols. 

 

Ivanova was appointed to the office as part of GERB's quota in the election commission. 

 

Hours before GERB's announcement, on Friday Deputy PM Tomislav Donchev blamed the Municipal Election Commission of Sofia, until now headed by Ivanova, for the chaos that lasted several days after the vote.